Observing the Night Sky

Posted on March 19, 2014 by karapetros

Observing the Night Sky

The website Sky and Telescope is very cool! It shows an easy to understand layout of what planets, stars, etc. you will be viewing in the night sky and where they will be moving throughout the night and week. It also gives you categories of different celestial objects you can try to search for in the night sky. Beyond that there is an interactive tool to viewing the night sky, which makes it easy for any level of sky observers. Additionally, there are pictures, videos, and news updates relating to what is going on in space. Attached is the picture of tonight’s night.


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Wait, It’s How Big?

Posted on March 19, 2014 by blankster22

Most people are probably aware that our solar system is REALLY BIG. They probably also know that the Sun is much larger than anything else in the solar system. However, a number on the subject might surprise people: 99.8%. That’s how much of our solar system’s total mass is located in the Sun.

All the planets, asteroids, comets, and everything else in the entire system has only .2% of the mass. Thinking about how small Earth is even in comparison to other planets (Jupiter, I’m looking at you), we get a pretty good picture of how insignificant we are within our own solar system, not even to think about the galaxy or the universe as a whole. So just sit there for a second, feeling small. I think it’s a neat feeling after a while.


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Get Your Act Together, Venus

Posted on March 19, 2014 by blankster22

Our solar system is one of several patterns. Almost all objects orbit in the same direction, certain types of objects inhabit certain regions, and most objects have the same direction of rotation. I emphasize most. It turns out that we have a few planetary rebels in this regard, most striking among them being Venus.

Venus rotates clockwise (as viewed from above Earth’s north pole), in the opposite direction of nearly everything else in our solar system. This means that from the surface (if you could see through the tremendously thick clouds), the sun would appear to rise in the west and set in the east.

So what caused this phenomenon on Venus? Scientists aren’t terribly sure. One hypothesis is that Venus collided with a giant object early on in the life time of the solar system, causing its rotation to reverse. However, it’s more likely that the incredibly dense atmosphere on Venus may be to blame. The Sun’s gravitational pull on this atmosphere likely created strong atmospheric tides, and this coupled with tidal effects from other planets as well as geological effects on Venus could have caused its rotation to slow over time and eventually reverse. You can read more about it here.


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Space Walking

Posted on March 18, 2014 by joshkip

As of late, I’ve become a bit obsessed with Reddit; but, the other day, I stumbled across this post, so maybe my addiction isn’t as troubling as it seems.

If you click on the link, you’ll see an incredible set of images that display some of the first ever astronauts “walking” in space. Aleksey Leonov (Soviet Union) was the first to take part in the activity know as “space walking.”

In looking through these pictures, you’ll notice that the majority of astronauts are holding onto a tether that is latched onto their belt, with the other end connected to the International Space Station (or some other satellite). However, there are a few images that do not show these tethers. So, how would an astronaut “push” his way back to the station if he were released into an airless space?

The answer is that he must have some sort of thruster (or jet pack) to force his body against the perpetual motion he used to begin his space walk. Remember, that in space, there is no air to “grab” ahold of and “swim” through.


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Heavy Bombardment

Posted on March 18, 2014 by joshkip

One topic in our readings that I found to be particularly interesting was the period known as “Heavy Bombardment” that took place in our solar system hundreds of millions of years ago. This simulation provides an excellent example of the collisions that occurred over that time (as well as an overview of the entire formation of our solar system).

What makes the period of “Heavy Bombardment” stand out to me, is the less the actual “destructive” nature of the event, and more of the insight it has given us in determining the age of individual planets. For instance, who would have ever thought that the impact craters on the moon could actually lend themselves to the origin of the moon’s existence?

(And to think we thought they just made a funny face…)

But seriously, not only was “Heavy Bombardment” crucial in creating the world we live in (it’s pretty crazy to think of all the circumstances that could have gone differently and left us with an uninhabitable Earth), but it remains a vital resource in our ability to understand the entirety of our solar system.

 

 


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Why don’t we get spun right off the equator of the Earth??

Posted on March 18, 2014 by zkorman

Well guys, it’s time to take care of another misconception taken on by students learning astronomy for the first time. We know an orbit happens when we go fast enough around a body. We also know that when something is spinning, it flings things off of it (like the spinning playground thingy that everyone flies off of on home videos. Also, click here for a simple example). So the question is: do we feel less gravity at the equator because of the spinning of the Earth? If the Earth is spinning so fast, why don’t we get flung off? Let’s answer the first one:

*CAUTION PHYSICS AHEAD*

The force of gravity at the surface of the Earth equals (mass)*(acceleration due to gravity) (F=mg). The normal force (Fn) of the surface holds us up, and is actually what we feel. In other words, when an elevator accelerates up, we feel heavier because the normal force is higher to give us the acceleration of the elevator. Finally, the net acceleration of a body traveling in a circle is (velocity)^2/(distance to center).

The velocity of the equator is 465.1 m/s. That’s fast, right? Let’s do the calculation. By the way, the radius of Earth is 6378 km.

acceleration = m*v^2/r = m * (465.1)^2/(6378000) = 0.034 m/s^2

For comparison, the acceleration due to gravity is 9.8 m/s^2, almost 300 times as strong. So, if the Earth spun  about 17 times faster, people would start to get flung off of the surface at the equator. For some perspective, a day would be about an hour and a half.

So when bodies are in space, assume that the rotation is negligible BEFORE you assume that the rotation might fling you. Odds are, for anything worth landing on, it won’t.


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Nuclear Fusion and You!

Posted on March 18, 2014 by zkorman

Humanity is another step closer to achieving our dream of harnessing the power of fusion for good!!!! How you ask? A few dozen lasers and a BOATLOAD of power consumption. Check this video out for the explanation. As it turns out, with laser beams at just the right angle and power and hitting a target simultaneously, we were able to produce more power in the fusion of hydrogen than was consumed by the lasers. This technology still needs a lot of work, however.

The issue is, there is also a large power requirement in order to contain the super-heated plasma that is a byproduct of the fusion’s energy output. So, as of now, the total power consumed is greater than the total power extracted from the fusion. But, as this video explains, it is a step for humanity in the right direction.


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Controversy over global warming

Posted on March 18, 2014 by blakestar2k14

Global warming has been a hot environmental topic for the past many years. It seems like scientists cannot stress enough the gravity of the situation that we have put out environment in. It has been generally accepted that it is due to the acceleration of the greenhouse ,by humans, that has created global warming to have such an impact.

Greenpeace, is an environmental organization that states their goal is to “ensure the ability of the Earth to nurture life in all its diversity…The group has focused on issues such as global warming, deforestation, overfishing, commercial whaling, generic engineering, and anti-nuclear issues.” Recently, one of the founders of Greenpeace, Patrick Moore, told a Senate Committee that there is “no scientific proof that human emissions of carbon dioxide are the dominant cause of the minor warming of the Earth’s atmosphere over the past 100 years.”

Source


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The way of the future

Posted on March 18, 2014 by blakestar2k14

Nuclear Fusion has always been the process known to heat the sun and produce the light that we so desperately depend on. Only until recently, has the possibility of being able to harness the incredible power of nuclear fusion becoming a possibility. The ultimate goal behind this groundbreaking research is to be able to create a completely sustainable energy source for our planet. In an article in the New York Times, Kenneth Chang states that: “The basic concept behind fusion is simple: Squeeze hydrogen atoms hard enough and they fuse together in helium. A helium atom weighs slightly less than the original hydrogen atoms, and by Einstein’s equation E = mc2, that liberated bit of mass turns into energy.”

The ITER Laboratory, located in the Cadarache research center, in southern France, is an international combined effort of China, European Union, India, Japan, Korea, Russia, and the United States of America. The goal is to be able to produce controllable and repeatable nuclear fusion factories.

Watch this awesome video about the ITER Laboratory

Video originally found here


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Androids in Space

Posted on March 17, 2014 by almetetj

Continuing with the topic of privatized space exploration, some developers at Google have launched Android smartphones into space. Why, you might ask? Because they can.

Seven payloads, with Nexus S’s as sensory modules, were sent into space on weather balloons. The data collected by the phones showed that the loads reached altitudes of over 30 km. In addition, temperatures The Nexus S was found to serve as a functional sensory module at temperatures as low as -50 C. Although this information is interesting, the coolest part about this experiment was not in the data that was collected. Rather, it was in the fact that the everyday smartphones that sit in our pockets are capable enough to capture the images detailed above.

 

More information can be found here


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